Letter: Trump Exec. Order Will Lead to Corporate Profits but No Jobs

April 10, 2017-Do not think for a second that Trump’s recent Executive Order regarding coal leases will bring back jobs. The maneuver subsidizes coal purchases on federal land that belongs to taxpayers. Forty percent of all coal produced in the US comes from these publicly owned lands.

For decades, several studies, and the GAO criticized the Bureau of Land Management for leasing the mining rights so cheaply that it cheats taxpayers out of proper compensation. Since 1990, 96 out of 107 coal lease sales in the Powder River Basin had only one bidder and have gone for about a third of the price of privately leased coal. The cheap sales have done nothing to boost mining employment or result in consumer energy savings because the coal companies benefitting from these deals have decades worth of coal reserves. The door is now open for pocket padding for coal execs as they pay a pittance for mining rights that will be sat on for many years, benefitting no one but themselves.

Join us Saturday, April 29th, 11am at Main Square Park in Highland where we will rally against this and for jobs, justice, and our planet!